I had no church relationship...
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I had no church relationship until the age of sixteen, except for those Sundays when my parents sent me to Sunday School. My father, however, became a Christian and a committed church member during my rebellious middle-teens. Instantly, we no longer hunted and fished on Sundays. Instead, I found myself attending worship, church school, and youth fellowship, so the church became the center of our lives as a family. Though I joined the church, I was not a Christian. For four years, I struggled with what that meant. The more I participated, the more I heard the church members insist what a nice, pleasant, polite, committed person I was. People misinterpreted my external politeness and participation for righteousness and obedience. For during this time, I thought to myself, "If I'm such a good person without Christ, why do I need Christ to make me good?" In a sense, I reflected the remark of the comedian George Gobel, "You have to sin a lot harder than me to go to hell." -- Keller
